Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: Amerikatsi

Posted on June 12, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though American in tone, the plot mechanics of this nominally Armenian feature scan Eastern European to a fault. Tragedy is played for laughs, at least at first, while the characters are shamelessly played as broad stereotypes that reinforce the black … Continue reading →

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Review: Love in the Big City

Posted on June 11, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though it’s the usual stylish froth you would expect from a mainstream Korean movie featuring two of the country’s most popular stars, Love in the Big City manages to make a timely statement about the state of affairs for young … Continue reading →

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Review: Thelma

Posted on June 6, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though the central dilemma posed by this action film should be significant for Japanese viewers—an elderly woman is scammed out of a large amount of money by a telephone caller pretending to represent her grandson, who the caller says has … Continue reading →

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Review: MaXXXine

Posted on June 5, 2025 by philipbrasor

Director Ti West and his acting collaborator, Mia Goth, have managed to accrue enough hip cachet with their porn/slasher hybrid trilogy to attract a higher class of supporting cast: Kevin Bacon, Giancarlo Esposito, Elizabeth Debicki, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan, and … Continue reading →

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Review: We Live in Time

Posted on June 4, 2025 by philipbrasor

The prerogatives of the romantic tragedy get a solid workout in this over-ambitious tale of a young heterosexual couple trying to have a child as the female partner struggles with cancer. The first thing that points up director John Crowley’s … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Koreans reconsider unwed parenthood

Posted on June 1, 2025 by philipbrasor

Last Friday, the Japanese Diet took up the issue of separate names for married couples for the first time in 28 years. Though the debate about bessei—allowing partners who wed to retain their individual birth surnames rather than forcing them … Continue reading →

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Review: Dream Girl: The Making of Marilyn Monroe

Posted on May 31, 2025 by philipbrasor

We hardly need another film document about Marilyn Monroe, and the bizarre tone of the English narration here could indicate that A.I. may have had something to do with its creation. Then there’s the movie’s aggressive tabloidy approach, which takes … Continue reading →

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Review: When Fall Is Coming and Dog on Trial

Posted on May 30, 2025 by philipbrasor

François Ozon’s films are as varied in tone and topic as Steven Soderbergh’s, but since he’s French that tone and those topics exude a European sensibility that doesn’t always export readily to other regions. The title of his latest, When … Continue reading →

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Review: Sasquatch Sunset

Posted on May 23, 2025 by philipbrasor

As a comedy, this imagined recreation of what a family of the mythical Bigfoot species might do over the course of four seasons places its bets for laughs on behavior that we associate with the ruder persuasion of humanity. The … Continue reading →

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Review: The Substance

Posted on May 16, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though much has already been written about Coralie Fargeat’s body horror fantasia about the pitfalls of female self-esteem, not enough of the discussion has focused on Dennis Quaid’s performance as a TV producer named Harvey. Though Quaid’s male chauvinist caricature … Continue reading →

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